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J.W.  Beardslee 


Biblicial 
Languages,  Literature 
and  Exegesis 


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1894 


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•-^-UliAL  cv._.- 


BIBLICAL 


Languages,  Literature  tf  Exegesis, 


AN  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS, 


BY  THE 


Rev.  JOHN  W.  BEARDSLEE,  D.D., 


Delivered  November  i,  1893, 


WHEN     INSTALLED     AS     PROFESSOR     IN     THAT      DEPARTMENT      IN     THE     WESTERN 

THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  OF  THE    REFORMED    (DUTCH)    CHURCH   IN 

AMERICA,    HOLLAND,    MICHIGAN. 


ALBANY,  N.  Y.: 

Charles  Munsell,  82  State  Street, 

1894. 


^J 


Programme. 


VOIvUNTARY, 
INVOCATION, 

SCRIPTURES, 

PRAYER, 

ANTHEM—"  I  Will  Feed  Mj'  Flock," 
SERMON, 


Mrs.  Clara  Louise  Bingham. 

The  Rev.  Edward  A.  Collier, 
President  of  Board  of  Superintendents. 

The  Rev.  H.  G.  Birchby, 

Holland,  Michigan. 

The  Rev.  Egbert  Winter,  D.D., 

Grand  Rapids,  Michigan. 

Simper. 

The  Rev.  Dennis  Wortman,  D.D., 
Vice-President  of  the  General  Synod. 


INSTALLATION- 

Call  of  General  Synod. 

ertificate  of  Dismission  from  Classis. 
Constitutional  Obligation. 
Signing  the  Formula. 
Prayer- Rev.  Prof  N.  M.  Stefifens,  D.D. 
Announcement  by  President  of  the  Board. 


ANTHEM— "  Te  Deum  Laudamus," 
CHARGE  TO  THE  PROFESSOR, 


Simper. 


The  Rev.  Peter  Moerdyke,  D.D., 

Chicago,  Illinois. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

DOXOLOGY. 

BENEDICTION. 


Inauguraf  (^bitree^^ 


♦♦♦ 


It  is  customary  in  our  Reformed  Churcli,  for  a 
person  when  installed  as  a  Professor  in  Theology 
to  deliver  an  address,  bearing  upon  some  question 
of  theological  interest,  related  to  that  department 
of  study  to  which  the  General  Synod  assigns  him. 

In  the  Call  given  me,  five  years  ago  last  June, 
the  General  Synod  says  :  "  The  branches  in  which 
you  are  to  instruct  the  youth  committed  to  your 
charge  are  Biblical  Languages,  Literature  and 
Exegesis."  The  words  are  suggestive  of  the 
position  which  our  Reformed  Church  has  always 
occupied  in  regard  to  the  training  of  her  ministry. 
She  has  uniformly  demanded  a  ministry  able  to 
read  and  interpret  the  Word  of  God  in  the  origi- 
nal languages  in  which  God  was  pleased  to  first 
reveal  his  will  to   men.     She  will  not  have  the 


4 

message  in  a  modern  translation  merely,  but  in 
the  very  words  wliicli  have  proceeded  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God. 

The  demand  thus  made  of  our  ministry  is  a 
very  serious  one.  It  involves  the  careful  study  of 
languages  far  removed  from  those  now  employed 
as  means  of  conveying  thought ;  it  calls  for 
patient  and  exhaustive  study  of  ancient  records, 
now  hard  to  decipher  and  harder  still  to  under- 
stand ;  it  requires  an  effort  to  bring  again  to  life 
ancient  civilizations  and  kingdoms,  that  we  may 
know  the  conditions  under  which  the  truth  was 
revealed  and  life  was  passed ;  it  compels  the  min- 
ister to  take  thought  expressed  in  ancient  and 
oriental  forms,  and  translate  it  into  modem  terms, 
adapted  to  our  Western  world.  It  is  no  easy  mat- 
ter for  a  person  to  take  a  truth  uttered  thousands 
of  years  ago,  under  the  primitive  conditions  of 
society  then  existing,  clothed  in  the  glowing  and 
often  extravagant  imagery  so  natural  to  the  ori- 
ental mind,  and  present  its  exact  equivalent  in  the 
realistic  and  prosaic  age  in  which  we  live.  And 
yet  this  is  just  what  is  required  of  the  minister. 


5 

His  text  book  was  written  thousands  of  years  ago. 
Some  of  it  bears  the  plainest  marks  of  the  world's 
intellectual  childhood ;  some  of  it  glows  with  all 
the  poetry  and  romance  of  oriental  life  ;  some  of 
it  is  saturated  with  the  profoundest  speculations  of 
Grecian  philosophy  ;  all  of  it  breathes  a  spirit 
utterly  foreign  to  our  modern  social  and  intel- 
lectual life.  To  read  its  instructions,  he  must 
become  familiar  with  the  sound  and  shape  of  for- 
eign words  ;  he  must  know  how  to  translate  that 
which  is  old  and  strange,  into  such  living  forms  of 
thought  as  will  reach  and  influence  the  world 
to-day. 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  the  subject  assigned  us 
by  the  General  Synod. 

I.  She  says  :  "  Teach  the  young  men  the  Bibli- 
cal Languages."  What  are  they  ?  The  Old  Testa- 
ment is  written  in  the  Hebrew  language,  except  a 
few  sections  which  are  in  Aramaic.  The  New 
Testament  is  written  in  Greek. 

The  Hebrew  bears  the  marks  of  a  world  yet  in 
its  infancy.  It  is  one  of  the  branches  of  that 
great  Semitic  family  of  languages   in  which  the 


thouglits  and  the  life  of  the  ancient  world  have 
been  treasured  up  for  the  benefit  of  modern  times. 
Allied  on  the  South  to  the  Arabic,  on  the  North  to 
the  Aramaic,  aud  on  the  East  to  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  languages,  it  is  the  connecting  link 
between  the  different  sections  of  the  ancient  world. 
In  it  are  found  the  records  of  the  childhood  of  our 
race.  Its  manner  of  expression  is  simple.  It 
rises  from  the  natural  to  the  spiritual.  Its  strong 
religious  teachings  are  clothed  in  words  which  are 
at  first  used  to  describe  material  things.  It  is  the 
language  of  the  heart.  It  delights  in  giving 
expression  to  the  emotions  which  surge  and  swell 
in  the  soul.  It  moulds  the  very  form  and  sound 
of  its  words  to  the  thought  they  are  to  express. 
Rich  in  grammatical  forms,  well  calculated  to 
express  the  most  varied  phases  of  thought,  it  does 
not  hesitate  to  override  all  such  formalities  of 
language,  when  by  so  doing,  it  can  more  vividly 
express  the  thought  which  seeks  expression. 

"The  Greek,"  says  Dr.  Schaff,  "Is  the  most 
beautiful  and  harmonious  language  ever  spoken 
or  written."     What  the  statuary  of   Greece  is  to 


1 

that  of  other  countries,  wliat  the  poetry  of  Greece 
is  when  placed  beside  the  poetry  of  other  lands, 
that  the  language  of  Greece  is  when  compared 
with  other  languages  of  the  world  For  literary 
finish  and  capacity  to  express  profound  thought,  it 
is  without  a  peer.  As  an  instrument  for  convey- 
ing the  sublime  conceptions  of  our  Christian  faith, 
it  is  more  suitable  than  any  other  language. 

And  to  this  natural  fitness  we  must  add  its 
almost  universal  use  when  the  time  came  for  the 
rapid  and  wide  proclamation  of  the  Gospel.  All 
through  Southern  Europe  the  Greek  was  the  lan- 
guage of  the  educated  and  of  the  ofiicial  classes. 
In  Northern  Africa  it  had  almost  superseded  the 
native  languages,  where  elegance  and  accuracy 
were  required.  In  Asia,  even  in  Palestine,  the  old 
home  of  the  Hebrew,  it  was  familiar  to  all  classes, 
so  that  when  the  Apostles  went  forth  to  preach 
they  used  the  Greek  language ;  when  they  wrote 
the  books  composing  our  New  Testament  they 
wrote  in  the  Greek  language ;  and  when  the  great 
preachers  of  the  early  Church  did  such  grand  ser- 
vice in  extending  the  Gospel  they  preached  in  the 
Greek  language. 


Here,  then,  we  liave  two  great  languages  of  tlie 
ancient  world ;  tlie  one  simple,  as  befits  the  child- 
hood of  the  race,  the  other  rich  and  ornate  in 
subtle  distinctions  of  form  necessary  to  express 
the  most  profound  spiritual  conceptions.  Both 
represent  the  most  finished  product  of  the  family 
of  languages  to  which  they  belong,  and  when 
combined  as  we  have  them  in  our  Bible,  their  very 
contrast  gives  to  the  book  a  wider  scope.  They 
unite  to  form  a  suitable  vehicle  for  the  expression 
of  the  many-sided,  profound  truths  of  revelation. 
They  are  the  two  massive  pillars  which  support 
the  truth,  each  having  a  beauty  peculiar  to  itself, 
and  at  the  same  time,  by  its  contrast,  helping  to 
set  forth  the  beauty  of  its  companion.  Among  all 
the  languages  in  which  men  have  clothed  their 
thoughts,  there  are  none  which  could  become  a 
more  worthy  and  appropriate  channel  for  the  com- 
munication of  the  divine  ideas.  In  simple  majesty, 
in  clearness  and  force  of  expression,  they  meet,  as 
far  as  human  languages  can,  the  conditions  neces- 
sary to  bring  the  thoughts  of  God  within  the  com- 
prehension of  man. 


9 

II.  But  you  will  at  once  understand  that  these 
languages  are  valuable  to  us  only  because  of  the 
thoughts  they  contain.  It  would  be  of  little 
benefit  for  the  minister  to  master  all  these  details 
of  the  grammar,  if  it  were  not  for  the  great  and 
divine  truths  hidden  in  them.  Hence  our  General 
Synod  says:  "Teach  the  young  men  not  only 
Biblical  Languages  but  Biblical  Literature." 
What  does  she  mean  by  Biblical  Literature  ? 

Here,  again,  a  wide  and  difficult  field  of  study 
opens  before  us.  The  Bible  is  a  book  with  a  won- 
derful literary  history,  and  it  becomes  necessary 
for  the  man  who  would  fully  understand  its  teach- 
ings to  know  its  literary  surroundings. 

While  it  is  one  book,  having  one  thought  run- 
ning through  all  its  pages,  it  is  yet  a  book  having 
many  different  elements  entering  into  its  composi- 
tion. The  writing  of  it  began  before  Israel  was 
settled  in  Canaan  as  a  nation  ;  its  last  pages  were 
written  after  Israel's  national  life  had  ceased. 
Some  of  its  books  contain  records  of  the  ordinary 
life  of  the  nation ;  others  are  made  up  of  the  pro- 
foundest  utterances  of  the  prophets  whose  spiritual 


ID 

vision  is  fixed  on  tlie  deep  mystery  of  the  redemp- 
tion which  is  to  come  through  a  crucified  Messiah. 
At  one  time  we  read  grand  orations,  calculated  to 
inspire  patriotic  pride,  or  quicken  the  gratitude  of 
the  heart  for  God ;  then  our  thought  is  taxed  to 
the  utmost  over  some  argument  designed  to  estab- 
lish the  foundations  of  our  faith  At  one  time  our 
thought  is  centered  upon  a  great  king,  engaged  in 
the  most  gigantic  enterprises,  building  great  cities, 
erecting  a  magnificent  temple  for  his  God,  and 
luxurious  ivory^  palaces  for  himself,  sending  forth 
ships  in  search  of  gold  and  spices  and  rare  gems, 
and  spending  his  days  in  luxury  and  lust.  Then 
the  scene  changes,  and  in  that  fourfold  story  which 
can  never  be  forgotten,  we  read  of  him  who  was 
surrounded  by  all  the  glory  of  his  Heavenly 
Father,  but  left  his  home  in  Heaven,  that  he  might 
live  and  die  here  on  earth,  so  poor  that  he  had  not 
where  to  lay  his  head,  and  thus  open  a  way  by 
which  sinners  might  be  restored  to  the  bosom  and 
the  love  of  God.  One  writer  tells  us  how  the  world 
and  man  sprang  into  being,  unfolding  that  start- 
ling record  of  creation,  that  we  may  know  how 


ti 

and  wliy  we  live  here  on  earth  ;  another,  illumin- 
ated by  the  spirit  of  God,  lifts  his  eye  up  toward 
Heaven,  and  tells  us  of  the  joy  and  the  blessed- 
ness and  the  everlasting  happiness  of  those  who 
find  a  home  with  God,  after  all  this  created  uni- 
verse shall  have  been  rolled  together  like  a  scroll, 
and  have  passed  forever  away. 

Such  a  book  cannot  be  understood  without  the 
most  careful  study.  The  man  who  reads  it  with- 
out taking  account  of  these  diverse  elements  will 
be  a  very  poor  interpreter  of  its  divine  teachings. 
Every  truth  has  its  divine  setting  and  like  the  cut 
diamoud,  will  flash  forth  the  light  of  God,  if  we 
hold  it  in  its  proper  position. 

Nor  is  this  all  we  need  to  know  to  understand 
properly  the  literature  of  the  Bible.  We  must 
know  of  the  thoughts  and  the  books  of  men  who 
were  not  inspired  by  those  influences  which  gave 
rise  to  the  Bible.  Before  Moses  began  to  write 
our  Bible,  he  and  his  people  were  familiar  with  the 
literature  of  Egypt.  Before  Abraham  left  his  old 
home  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Chal- 
deans were  writing  history  and  poetry  and  phil- 


12 

osopliy.     Long  before  Israel  settled  in  Palestine, 
the  inhabitants  of  that  land  were  engaged  in  great 
mercantile  enterprises,  sending  out  caravans  and 
ships  to   collect  the  treasures   of   the  world,   and 
they  have  left  their  account  books,  and  their  gov- 
ernment records,  and  their  thoughts,  in  such  shape 
that   we  can   read  them  to  this  day.      Thus   all 
around   Israel  were  nations   coming  into  contact 
with  them  in  commerce  and  war,  exerting  influ- 
ences over  them,  which   contributed  very  largely 
to    make   them   what   they  were.     You    can    not, 
therefore,  pick  up  the  writings  of  Israel  and  under- 
stand them,  without  taking  account  of  these  for- 
eign influences.     You  must  know  what  the  world 
around  Israel  was  thinking  and  doing,  how  they 
worshipped,  and  what  spiritual  ideas  they  enter- 
tained, before  you  can  fully  appreciate  the  position 
which  Israel  occupied,  or  know  the    meaning   of 
the  books  they  wrote.     All  these  rays  of  light  must 
be  concentrated  on  the  one  Book,  before  its  sublime 
teachings  are  fully  illuminated.     Every  clay  tablet 
found  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon   or  Ninevah, 
every  papyrus    scroll    taken    from    the   tombs    of 


13 

Egypt's  kings,  every  rude  inscription  cut  into  the 
rocks  of  Arabia,  every  rock  hewn  record  like  that 
of  King  Mesha,  of  Moab,  the  tablets  of  Tell  el 
Amarna,  on  which  are  recorded  the  commercial 
and  national  relations  existing  between  Palestine 
and  Egypt  and  Babylon,  before  yet  Moses  was 
born,  become  important  helps  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  divine  record  and  bring  more  vividly 
and  clearly  before  us  the  supreme  majesty  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

So  broad  and  comprehensive  and  helpful  to  the 
minister,  is  the  study  of  Biblical  Literature,  with 
which  our  Church  would  have  her  ministers  be- 
come familiar. 

III.  But  even  this  does  not  satisfy  our  Reformed 
Church  in  regard  to  the  Biblical  training  of  her 
ministry,  for  she  says:  "Teach  the  young  men 
the  Biblical  Languages  and  Biblical  Literature 
and  Exegesis." 

By  Exegesis  we  understand  the  science  of  inter- 
preting correctly  the  language  found  in  the  Bible. 
We  have  seen  how  varied  that  language  is  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Bible.     If  a  man  should  under- 


14 

take  to  interpret  its  history  by  applying  to  it  the 
rules  we  use  when  we  study  poetry,  or  if  he  should 
persist  in  treating  prophecy  as  if  it  were  simply 
a  fancy  born  of  men,  he  would  make  sad  work  of 
its  teaching.  There  are  well  defined  laws  for 
determining  the  exact  meaning  of  language. 
These  laws  apply  to  the  language  of  the  Bible,  as 
well  as  to  any  other.  If  a  passage  is  obscure, 
there  are  rules  whose  application  throws  light  on 
its  meaning.  The  man  who  understands  these 
rules  and  applies  them  becomes  an  intelligent 
reader  and  he  will  appreciate  and  enter  into  the 
spirit   of    the   author   he   reads.     The    Bible,    on 

account  of  its  peculiar  origin  and  its  unique 
design,  needs  even  more  care  than  other  books  in 
its  interpretation.  The  vast  range  of  its  teachings 
and  their  bearing  on  the  spiritual  life,  demand  the 
most  rigid  care  in  gaining  its  exact  thoughts. 
When  you  read  history  or  poetry,  you  will  be 
benefitted  or  injured  in  proportion  to  your  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  for  interpreting  what  you  read, 
and  your  fidelity  in  applying  them ;  how  much 
more  when  the  deep  mysteries  of  the  Scripture  are 


15 

investigated  and  we  would  know  our  condition  and 
destiny.  A  wrong  understanding  of  a  word  may 
land  a  soul  in  the  dark  regions  of  unbelief,  from 
whick  it  can  find  no  way  of  escape.  There  is  no 
room  here  for  speculation,  for  preconceived  notions 
in  regard  to  the  divine  will  or  human  duty.  We 
must  come  to  the  word  equipped  with  all  that  is 
necessary  to  penetrate  to  its  central  thought ;  we 
must  have  confidence  to  believe  that  our  conclu- 
sions are  true,  because  they  rest  upon  recognized 
laws  for  interpreting  language.  To  secure  this, 
our  Reformed  Church  says  to  every  one  who  would 
enter  her  ministry :  "  You  must  learn  the  laws  of 
thought  and  language,  and  you  must  know  how  to 
apply  them  to  the  Scripture,  before  you  presume 
to  stand  before  your  fellow  men  to  tell  them  what 
God  has  declared  necessary  to  their  salvation." 

A  correct  exegesis  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  right 
knowledge  of  God  and  the  soul.  By  it  alone  can 
we  determine  what  is  duty.  It  is  the  solid  basis 
on  which  rests  our  hope  for  the  future.  It  is  the 
only  way  by  which  we  can  know  the  truth,  which 
is  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation.     And  for 


i6 

such  an  exegesis  of  the  Bible  the  most  extensive 
requirements  are  necessary.  History  and  geog- 
raphy and  antiquities  ;  social  customs  and  religious 
beliefs ;  civil  and  domestic  conditions  ;  philosophy 
and  literature,  no  less  than  grammar  and  diction- 
ary, must  be  brought  into  service.  For  influences 
spring  from  all  these  directions  which  color  and 
mould  the  life  of  those  who  feel  them.  Biblical 
instruction  which  does  not  use  all  these  can  never 
be  sure  of  its  conclusions,  since  it  does  not  fully 
know  the  conditions  under  which  the  Bible  was 
written. 

Such,  then,  is  the  Biblical  education  which 
our  Church  demands  that  her  ministry  shall  pos- 
sess. The  question  arises,  "  Is  this  a  reasonable 
demand  ?  Has  the  Church  a  right  to  ask  so  much 
of  those  who  would  preach  the  Gospel  ? 

There  are  many  who  tell  us  the  Church  has  no 
right  to  expect  her  ministers  to  study  such  difficult 
questions.  We  need  leaders,  they  tell  us,  men 
who  can  manage  affairs  and  stir  up  emotions  and 
lead  the  world  to  act. 

Or  they  tell  us  that  such  personal  study  is  not 


17 

now  necessary,  because  great  scholars  have  gone 
through  these  fields  of  knowledge  and  recorded 
the  results  of  their  study  in  books,  which  furnish 
us  a  far  better  idea  of  the  subject,  than  the  average 
minister  can  ever  reach  by  his  own  investigation. 

Above  all,  they  tell  us  how  faithfully  and  accu- 
rately the  Bible  has  been  translated,  so  that  every 
one  can  read  it  and  know  its  meaning.  Why  com- 
pel the  minister  to  sit  down  with  grammar  and 
dictionary  and  logic  and  learning  such  as  he  has, 
to  again  spell  out  the  record  for  himself. 

To  this  let  me  answer  briefly  : 

I.  It  does  not  seem  an  unreasonable  demand 
that  when  a  man  is  sent  publicly  to  proclaim 
truth,  he  should  himself  be  able  to  read  the  mes- 
sage he  is  to  deliver  to  others.  What  would  be 
thought  of  an  Ambassador  going  from  Washing- 
ton to  the  Court  of  St.  James  or  Berlin,  to  bear 
important  State  papers,  but  who  when  questioned 
in  regard  to  them,  was  compelled  to  say :  "  I  can- 
not read  them."  And  when  a  man  goes  out  from 
the  Court  of  Heaven  to  bear  the  message  of  salva- 
tion to  men,  does  it  seem  right  that  he  should  be 


unable  to  tell  tlie  world  what  his  message  is,  until 
some  one  else  first  reads  it  to  him  ?  I  do  not  of 
course  mean  to  say,  that  no  one  can  properly 
preach  the  Gospel  who  cannot  read  it  in  the  origi- 
nal. Thank  God  !  the  Gospel  is  not  so  helpless  as 
that.  From  the  unlearned  God  often  chooses  his 
most  successful  preachers.  But  I  insist  upon  it 
that  the  preacher  who  can  read  intelligently  that 
original  Word  which  God  has  spoken,  has  a 
better  equipment  than  those  who  cannot.  It  is 
safer  to  take  the  message  directly  from  the  King, 
than  to  trust  even  his  most  faithful  minister. 

2.  But  further,  there  is  a  positive  gain  in  such 
study.  The  labor  involved  brings  a  rich  reward 
to  the  laborer.  The  minister  who  sits  down  to 
such  patient,  laborious  investigation  of  the  truth, 
will  arise  from  his  task  with  a  broader  and  more 
profound  conviction  of  its  value.  It  may  be  true 
that  he  cannot  clothe  his  translation  in  such 
elegant  language  as  that  found  in  our  great  trans- 
lations of  the  Bible,  but  the  rough  form  of  his 
own  rendering  will  have  for  him  a  value  infinitely 
beyond  what  he  would  have  secured  if  he  had  been 


19 

content,  in  a  formal  way,  to  read  the  results  of 
another  man's  study.  When  we  send  our  boys 
and  girls  to  college,  we  do  not  put  into  their  hands 
the  famous  translations  of  Homer  and  Vergil  and 
Plato  ;  we  give  them  the  original  words  of  these 
great  thinkers,  and  tell  them  that  with  the  help  of 
grammar  and  dictionary  they  must  make  a  trans- 
lation for  themselves.  And  we  know  that  when 
they  have  studied  history  and  archaeology,  and 
learned  something  of  the  social  and  civil  life  of 
those  times,  and  plodded  word  by  word  through 
the  dictionary  and  grammar,  their  mental  disci- 
pline and  their  actual  knowledge  will  be  a  thous- 
andfold greater  than  if  we  had  given  them  the 
easier  task  of  reading  some  fine  translation. 

3.  Besides  this,  we  know  that  any  translation, 
however  elegant  and  accurate,  lacks  sotnething  of 
the  force  and  beauty  of  the  original.  There  are 
idioms  which  can  never  be  fully  translated,  they 
must  be  felt  in  the  intellect  and  the  heart  to  be  ap- 
preciated. There  are  \vords  which  have  such  a 
wealth  of  meaning,  and  whose  use  is  so  peculiar, 
that  no  other  language  can  furnish  words  which 


20 

can  fully  express  them.  There  is  a  spirit  in  lan- 
guage which  will  not  be  confined  in  foreign  words, 
however  significant  and  beautiful. 

4.  And  then  too,  how  soon  does  a  translation 
lose  its  special  fitness.  Words  grow  old  and  die ; 
forms  of  expression  become  antiquated ;  new  inves- 
tigations threw  new  meaning  into  the  thoughts 
which  requires  a  new  manner  of  expression. 
Every  human  language  is  daily  changing  its  forms 
so  that  the  thought  must  find  new  terms  to  convey 
it.  That  noble  translation  of  the  Bible  made  by 
Luther,  so  justly  dear  to  the  German  heart,  has 
had  to  submit  to  revision.  So  has  our  own 
English  Bible.  So,  too,  has  that  Staten  Bijbel,  of 
Holland,  in  some  respects  the  grandest  of  all 
modern  versions. 

As  long  as  language  remains  imperfect,  its 
expression  must  change,  and  the  minister  who 
would  give  to  men  the  freshest,  fittest  expression 
of  God's  Word,  must  be  continually  on  the  watch 
for  just  the  word  which  fits  the  idea  before  him. 
By  his  own  reading  and  re-reading  of  the  Sacred 
text,  will  he  take  in  more  and  more  of  its  divine 


21 

Spirit  and  be  enabled  with  ever-increasing  power 
and  fullness  to  proclaim  the  unsearcbable  Word 
of  the  everlasting  God. 

There  is  then  an  excellent  reason  why  onr 
Church  establishes  schools  in  which  her  minis- 
ters may  be  taught  the  "  Biblical  Languages  and 
Literature  and  Exegesis."  The  Bible  is  the  founda- 
tion on  which  we  build  our  hopes.  It  is  the  rule 
by  which  we  fashion  our  character.  Well  has 
our  Reformed  Church  written,  in  her  noble  Con- 
fession of  Faith :  "  We  believe  that  these  Holy 
Scriptures  contain  the  will  of  God,  and  that  what- 
soever man  ought  to  believe  unto  salvation  is 
suf&ciently  taught  therein." 

What  the  world  needs  is  a  correct  knowledge  of 
these  teachings  of  the  Scripture ;  and  the  noble 
mission  of  the  minister  of  the  Gospel  is  to  search 
out,  by  prayer  and  by  study,  what  God's  word  does 
teach,  and  then  to  go  out  and  throw  the  great 
search  light  of  divine  truth  into  the  intellect  and 
heart  of  men. 

That  word,  when  correctly  understood,  is  "quick 
and   powerful,    and   sharper   than    any  two-edged 


sword,  piercing  even  to  tHe  dividing  asunder  of 
soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and 
is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the 
heart." 

May  our  Reformed  Church  stand  firm,  as  she 
always  has  stood  firm  in  demanding  that  those 
who  preach  the  Gospel  shall  be  faithful  and 
critical  students  of  the  Bible. 


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PAMPHIET   BINDER 

^^^    Syracuse,  N.   Y. 
ZZZZi    Stockton,  Calif. 


<'S^:- 


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